A virtual machine (VM) is a self-contained operating environment that emulates a hardware platform and can run a “guest” operating system. A VM runs “on top” of a virtual machine monitor (VMM), which is an operating system that is run on the underlying hardware platform. The VMM contains multiple virtual devices, one of which can be a virtual network interface card (VNIC).
The VNIC runs as part of the VMM and routes data packets between a network interface card (NIC) on the hardware platform and various VMs.
Like reference numerals in different figures indicate like elements.